Bastille

Bastille (lit. the Building), a State prison in Paris, built
originally as a fortress of defence to the city, by order of Charles V.,
between 1369 and 1382, but used as a place of imprisonment from the
first; a square structure, with towers and dungeons for the incarceration
of the prisoners, the whole surrounded by a moat, and accessible only by
drawbridges; “tyranny's stronghold”; attacked by a mob on 14th July 1789;
taken chiefly by noise; overturned, as “the city of Jericho, by
miraculous sound”; demolished, and the key of it sent to Washington; the
taking of it was the first event in the Revolution. See Carlyle's “French
Revolution” for the description of the fall of it.